Thinking about…

I have to confess that the knowledge and skills I’m writing about today are not ones that I possess. 

If you were to ask my family about this set of knowledge and skills and what my competency was, they would probably laugh or look at you with despair.

The knowledge and skills I’m talking about are the preparation and cooking of food. 

I have often joked with my family when I have brought them a breakfast of cereal and milk, that I’ve just cooked it for them. Sadly this is probably about the limit of my food preparation competency.

Despite my own ignorance, for a long time I’ve considered being able to prepare and cook food to be one of the most important skills that somebody working in social care can possess. This is particularly important when we think about the workforce supporting people with a learning disability.

When you are living away from your family, either in a flat on your own, or perhaps with a small group of other people with a learning disability, unless you know how to cook well for yourself you are dependent on the workers who support you and their ability to help you prepare and cook food.

This isn’t just about having a wide and varied diet. It’s also about having workers who can support you to learn to cook for yourself, and to understand the importance of eating more than cereal, beans on toast, oven chips, chicken nuggets and take aways.

Proper nutrition is central to our well-being. Alongside physical and mental exercise. If we’re not getting the right food inside us we can quickly develop physical and mental health issues that can have a serious impact on our well-being and our independence.

I have listened to people talk about how the only food their carers seem to be able to prepare is cheese on toast or beans on toast, this maybe served with the odd piece of fruit thrown in as desert for good measure. I’ve even had somebody tell me about the time they asked a new carer to make them cheese on toast and they were amazed to see them put the bread and the cheese in the toaster. Needless to say, this did not end well!

I’ve never understood why food preparation and the cooking of food are not explicitly part of our recruitment and retention schemes across all of social care.

When we are recruiting new people, shouldn’t we be asking them – what do you know about food preparation and cooking? When we are running learning and development programmes for workers, shouldn’t food preparation, cooking and nutrition be part of workers induction and ongoing programs of training?

If we were to do this, would we see a reduction in physical health and mental health challenges, particularly amongst people who spend a lifetime being supported by the paid social care workforce?

Would a workforce who knows how to prepare and cook food and has an understanding of nutrition also have improved well-being themselves? Would a workforce who knows how to prepare and cook food be less prone to sickness, less prone to long-term health issues and more resilient in everything they do physically and mentally?

And don’t we already have a social care workforce with a lot of this knowledge and skills to pass on to other parts of the workforce? Think about the number of people with learning disabilities who work every day in cafés and restaurants alongside social care staff.

Perhaps there’s a whole group of social care staff and people with a learning disability working in those cafés and restaurants who could be part of an ongoing program of training for other social care staff who don’t have those knowledge and skills.

The outcomes from a workforce who have a basic knowledge of nutrition and know how to prepare and cook food properly for the people they support might not be instantly clear. Although how many of us have made changes to our diet and quite rapidly seen changes in our own physical and mental well-being?

So here’s a challenge to myself and others – to progress beyond opening a tin of baked beans and move towards being able to prepare and cook a nutritious meal. Being able to sit down with the people you are supporting and enjoy that meal together has surely got to be better than eating convenience food every day? 

Jim Thomas

January 2025